What is Integrated Bioscience (IB)?

"Scientific progress is based ultimately on unification rather than fragmentation of knowledge. At the threshold of what is widely regarded as the century of biology, the life sciences are undergoing a profound transformation. They have long existed as a collection of narrow, even parochial, disciplines with well-defined territories...The time is upon us to recognize that the new frontier is the interface, wherever it remains unexplored."1

As the excerpt above suggests, a century of synthesis is one of the defining challenges for biologists. Our IB program recognizes this and even stretches the boundaries beyond life sciences to include physical sciences, math, and engineering to name just a few prominent examples. Integrated Bioscience is founded on the simple principle that biology is at the core of, or interfaces among an essentially limitless array of collaborative research endeavors. Fundamental to that principle is the recognition that collaboration does not, by itself, guarantee integration. Instead, collaboration provides an opportunity for, path to, and tools required by synthesis. IB is a young program, and as we attempt to measure our success, we will consider not only what teams have formed, but also how, through collaboration, novel questions are being pursued.